Ranger

From Guild Wars Wiki

Rangers are unique in their ability to succeed with the help of, or even in spite of, their environment. Nature rituals allow them to manipulate the environment to hinder their enemies, or borrow the very power of creation to heal and aid their allies. They favor long-range combat, the bow being their weapon of choice, and can be especially effective from elevated locations such as bridges and cliffs. They are the only profession with the ability to charm animals, which then accompany them on their travels and assist them in battle, gaining experience and levels over time. Rangers are also blessed with survival skills that help keep them alive.
–The Guild Wars Manuscripts

An agile and wily survivor, the Ranger specializes in archery, beast mastery, and attunement to nature.

–In-game description

[edit] Attributes

[edit] Expertise (Primary)

Points into Expertise decrease the Energy cost by 4% of your attacks, Rituals, Touch Skills and Ranger Skills

[edit] Beast Mastery

Beast Mastery improves your animal companion's basic attack damage, as well as skills that help to keep your companion from harm.

[edit] Marksmanship

Improving Marksmanship increases basic bow damage, and increases damage dealt by bow skills, it also affects the chance of a critical hit. It is the base attribute for most bow skills.

[edit] Wilderness Survival

Wilderness Survival improves defensive Stances, Preparations, and Traps, as well as some nature rituals.

[edit] Common usage

In a party the ranger will often be called upon to pull foes toward the group with a long-ranged arrow. This is used to separate enemy groups, ensuring that there is a safe distance between the party and any other foes, minimizing the chance that the group will have to fight more enemies than they can safely handle.

If you are required to pull while your pet is with you, you can set your pet to Heel using the Pet Control window. For people who would rather not be bothered with pet controls, the following method can be used instead. Attack your target and as soon as the first arrow has been loosed and is in flight, move backwards to cancel the attack. This way, your arrow will still hit your target and draw a small group to your location, while your pet will remain motionless until you attack or you are attacked. This method was developed before pet controls were released and is now considered obsolete.

[edit] Barraging

A barrage Ranger uses the elite skill Barrage or standard skill Volley to fire arrows at multiple enemies at once. Barrage rangers are very useful in situations where a party is fighting clustered groups of enemies. The addition of damage-boosting buffs such as Winnowing, Order of Pain, Mark of Pain, Splinter Weapon and Conjure Flame combined with a Fiery bow, greatly increase the damage output of barrage rangers. However, Barrage rangers are less effective in areas with small amounts of enemies spread apart.

[edit] Degeneration

A very useful application of the Ranger is the use of bow attacks and preparations that inflict some sort of condition in addition to damage. Preparations like Apply Poison and Incendiary Arrows or bow attacks like Burning Arrow will cause a health drain or health "degeneration" on a target over a period of time when hit with an arrow.

[edit] Interrupting

With a variety of interrupt causing skills available to them, Rangers are very adept at denying enemies the opportunity to use their skills against your party. This role can really benefit a party when fighting high-level bosses that use especially devastating spells with longer initialization times like Glint, Kuunavang, and Zhu Hanuku. This role usually involves the use of a recurve bow and/or Read the Wind to maximize the chances of a successful interrupt.

[edit] Running

Rangers have several speed buffs (such as Dodge, Storm Chaser, and Escape) that will increase their running speed temporarily, and grant the Ranger the ability to block a large portion of incoming attacks. They make decent "runners" (people who bypass monsters instead of fighting them to reach new areas) when combined with a secondary profession like a Monk or Dervish. The Ranger has no innate defense against knockdowns, specific conditions (see: Antidote Signet), and hexes, which all limit his or her abilities as a runner, however it should be noted that all these drawbacks can be easily remedied through the use of one's secondary profession skills.

[edit] Trapping

The Ranger has the unique ability to lay hidden traps that activate without warning when an enemy passes over them. This tactic is heavily used in the Underworld to release a variety of conditions upon an enemy, draining its life extremely quickly. This tactic is also very effective for creating kill zones at choke points.

[edit] See also

Professions
Core: Warrior • Ranger • Monk • Necromancer • Mesmer • Elementalist
Factions: Assassin • Ritualist Nightfall: Paragon • Dervish